


'cause you and I? (we were born to die.)

by bad_news (bastille), bastille



Category: Hunger Games (2012), Hunger Games Series - All Media Types, Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins, X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: "Born to Die" by Lana Del Rey, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Movie Fusion, Author is the unapologetic Angstmonger Queen, Best Friends to Lovers, I Aim to Break, M/M, Songfiction
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-10-06
Updated: 2013-01-08
Packaged: 2017-11-15 18:54:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 1,502
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/530557
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bastille/pseuds/bad_news, https://archiveofourown.org/users/bastille/pseuds/bastille
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“I just wish...”  He gave a half aborted movement with his hands, as if to illustrate with them what his words could not but where his lips failed, so did his body.</p><p>Charles reached over to catch one of Tony’s fluttering hands in his and interlaced their fingers together, pleased at the warmth and the pressure, at the sight.</p><p>“So do I, Tony.”</p><p>An XMFC/Hunger Games movie fusion.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. show me what I'm looking for

**Author's Note:**

> A bit of background before we begin:  
> Katniss: Charles X.  
> Peeta: Erik L.  
> Gale: Tony S. (Yes, I’m going there and yes, I’m going there as well.)  
> Prim: Raven D.  
> Rue: Angel S.  
> Cato: Alex S.  
> Effie: Emma F.  
> Cinna: TBA  
> Haymitch: TBA  
> Snow: Sebastian S. (because who else.)
> 
> Title and lyrics taken from Lana Del Rey’s _Born to Die_ , one of the most tragically beautiful songs ever written.
> 
>  
> 
> _Don’t make me sad_  
>  _don’t make me cry_  
>  _sometimes love is not enough and the road gets tough_  
>  _I don’t know why._
> 
>  
> 
> _Come on, take a walk on the wild side_  
>  _let me kiss you hard in the pouring rain_  
>  _you like your girls insane_
> 
>  
> 
> _choose your last words_  
>  _this is the last time_  
>  _‘cause you and I?_  
>  _we were born to die._

 

‘cause you and I? (we were born to die.)

 

an _XMFC_ / _Hunger Games_  movie fusion fanfiction

  
**_**** _ ** **_*********_**

charles _ **x**_ erik

**_***_ **

**** “We should just go.”

“Tony...”  
“I mean it.”  Tony turned on the boulder he was sharing with Charles and looks at him, right at him.  “We can go, pack some shit up now and just disappear into that forest.”  
  
Charles sighed, a world weary sound.  Tony didn’t like it.    
  
How many nights had he lain awake, dreaming about it?  About just taking off into the woods with Tony, never to be seen again?  The winds of freedom carried him and lifted him up until he thought about Raven, about leaving her behind with a lifeless mother, surely to starve and die, and he came crashing down into to Earth, landing gracelessly back into the cold, welcoming arms of unfortunate reality.  Always.  
  
“They’d find us.”  He and Tony had this conversation countless times, high off the flights of fancy and freedom but they always arrived at the same destination; that the grip this life had on them would never let them go, not for long.  It would always find its way back to its time honoured place shackled to their ankles like iron balls.  Concrete feet were useless for running.  
  
“Fuck!”  Tony exploded, startling the wood doves out of the red oak to their left.  The sun filtered down in stele-like rays of light through the canopy they sat beneath.  The sight reminded Charles of light streaming in through the beams of an open roof.  Like the patch of their roof at home that he had yet to fix.  
  
Charles turned his head just slightly to give him an amused yet unimpressed look.  Tony caught it and laughed in spite of his obvious perturbation but sobered quickly.  
  
“I just wish...”  He gave a half aborted movement with his hands, as if to illustrate with them what his words could not but where his lips failed, so did his body.  
  
Charles reached over to catch one of Tony’s fluttering hands in his and interlaced their fingers together, pleased at the warmth and the pressure, at the sight.  
  
“So do I, Tony.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title shamelessly stolen form the Carolina Liars song.


	2. feet don't fail me now

  
_Feet don’t fail me now_   
_take me to the finish line_   
_oh, my heart, it breaks every step that I take_

Somebody was crying.  Big, wailing, terrible sobs.  For a strange moment Charles thought that it was him.  He certainly felt like crying.

Upon closer inspection Charles realised that it was Raven, hands clapped over her mouth, trying in vain to strangle them back.  As the Peace Keepers flanked him and led him up to the stage where Emma Frost and her icy, fake smile awaited him, he caught sight of Tony in the crowd.

His eyes were wide and hard, contrasting with the tears gathering in his eyes like storm clouds on a dark horizon.  Tony’s eyes didn’t leave Charles’ once, as if he was afraid blinking would send his tears over the edge and he wouldn’t let that happen, not here.

Charles reached the staircase leading up to the stage and ascended them mechanically, methodically.  He kept walking until he made it to the spot at the podium beside Emma.

She begins to spout some contrived, artificial bullshit about the outstanding bravery of a single child and the great service he was doing the Capitol.  All Charles could think about was food.

How the hell were Raven and Mum going to eat?  Raven was only a child, resourceful and sharp though she was for her age, and she couldn’t be tasked with providing for herself and a grown woman on a daily basis.

_Oh god.  Oh my god, they’re gonna starve._   


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I _promise you_ there is more of this coming...not... _entirely_ reasonably soon. But is being banged out, chapter three now even as I post this.
> 
> Thank for reading! Feedback is always appreciated.


	3. but I'm hoping at the gates

  
_but I’m hoping at the gates_   
_they’ll tell  me that you’re mine_

 

“Tony, oh my god, I’m begging you.  Please don’t let them starve, please.”

“Charles.  I promise.  I promise, it _won’t_ _happen_.”  Tony didn’t like this look on Charles.  The look of wide eyed, bone-deep desperation.

So he strode forward from where he stood at the door to the holding room and swept Charles up in his arms.  
Just like that, all the frantic tension slipped from his frame and he rested his weight against Tony’s slim frame.

“I just wish --”

“Don’t _say_ it, Tony.”

“It’s true!”  Tony spins Charles around to face him and Charles can see that the tears he has fighting back since the Reaping are threatening to fall now more that ever.

“I wish it could have been me instead.”  His hand creeps up and finds Charles cheek and Charles turns into the touch.

“Anyone but you.”  He’s whispering now.

Charles tilts his head back and meets Tony’s eyes.  They’re full of emotion, one Charles now, finally recognises as adoration.

It doesn’t take much for him to close the distance between their faces and meet Tony’s lips with his own.  There’s a sensation like ice and fire intermingled that skids and slides madly up and down his spine until it steadies and undulates.  He feels like his intestines have been twisted and tangled up in one another.

Then Tony’s hand soothes itself down Charles’ spine and the feeling melts into a calm contentment and rightness.

When Tony pulls away, Charles knows it’s because he can hear the booming footsteps of the Peace Keepers who are coming to remove him and take Charles to the train that will take him to the Capitol.  They clasp their hands together to wait until they come.

Letting go of Tony’s hand when they finally do is the hardest thing he has ever done.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.


	4. by mistake or design

_walking through the city streets_   
_is it by mistake or design_   
_that I feel so alone on a Friday night_

 

Sitting by the obscenely vast glass window in his tribute apartment, Charles cannot think of a time that he’s felt more alone.  The chill of the glass seeps in where his cheek is pressed up against it but it is nothing compared to the frost building in his heart when he thinks of Tony and everything he has been forced to leave behind.

There’s a sharp knocking at his door and Charles growls softly.  It’s probably his useless, gruff, hairy mentor, drunk off his ass.

“I swear to god, Logan,”  Charles says irately, swinging the door open to reveal someone who is decidedly not Logan.

Erik stands at the entrance to Charles’ apartment with a slightly lost, slightly bemused expression.

“I just...”  He trails off, looking at a loss for what to say next.  Charles is very much in the same boat.

“Do you wanna...”  Charles gestures somewhat (unnecessarily ) grandly into his temporary abode.  Erik nods but makes no move to enter.  This confuses Charles until he realises he’s still standing in the doorway and he hastily steps aside to allow him in.

I could steep tea in the heat of all this awkward.  He has half a mind to try.

Charles, being the unrepentant drama queen that he is, sweeps loftily past Erik where he still stands just within the doorway to his room and resumes him place by the glass.  After a few moments, Erik follows him over to the window and perches on the wide sill.

Silence reigns.

“Why us?”

He doesn’t even have to ask what he means.  Charles thinks for a moment.

“Why anyone?”

“What do you think would happen?”

Charles waits for Erik to finish his thought.  When he doesn’t immediately, he prompts, “If what?”

It is still another few seconds before Erik replied, “What do you think would happen if we just said no.  If we said, ‘Fuck this.’ and leapt of the top of this building.”

Charles eyes Erik in his peripheral vision.  He is struck by the harsh lines and planes of his face that lend themselves to his unorthodox, almost savage beauty.  It takes Charles a moment to tears his eyes away and respond.

“I doubt something like that has ever even occurred to someone who was reaped.  And they’d never allow for something like that to happen.”

“I know.  I tried.”

Charles turns sharply to look at Erik once more, heart banging irrationally and unreasonably fast against his ribs.  “What?  When?   _Why_?”

Erik meets his stare head on.  “Just now.  Before I came down here.”  He offered no other comment before Charles prompts him with

“You didn’t answer my last question.”

Erik sighs.  It doesn’t become him.  “Because if I end up dying here in this capitol, I want to die knowing I didn’t give into their game.  I want to die still  _me_.”

Charles holds his stare for a few moments longer, keenly aware of the sharp pain beginning to sting behind his eyes and prick his ribcage.  This should never happen.  No one should ever have to think like this.

He looks away again, back to the glass and blinks rapidly before replying.

 “Well, I’m sorry Erik, but I really can’t afford to think that way.”

 If Erik happens to notice the tear that slips surreptitiously down his cheek, he says nothing of it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's another chapter! I apologise for taking so long, life issues, intrigue in another IRL fandom of mine (that's still on-going), and other shit got in the way but I've managed to bang out this new chapter that didn't quite want to be written when I started it earlier.
> 
>  ** _listening to_**  
>  _Born to Die_ (orchestral cover) - Aston  
>  This song was greatly influential in inspiring me to start writing for this story again; at times it brought tears to my eyes listening to it and thinking about where this story would go.

**Author's Note:**

> To be continued soon.


End file.
